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Great Muta vs. Bob Sapp
on November 17th, 2002

Event: WRESTLE-1
Location: Yokohama, Japan
Announced Attendance: 12,807

Sapp's entrance is quite a site, as he comes down with dancers and does a dance himself while wearing a white boa.  Muta's entrance is equally cool, as smoke shoots up around the ring and suddenly he is standing inside of it, relaxed in the corner still in full gear.  I mentioned earlier that I am a fan of La Parka's, well Muta is probably my favorite wrestler in the world today.  Again, just a fair warning, I am not going to try to pretend that my biases won't effect my match thoughts.  Muta starts by quickly dropkicking Sapp in the knee twice and hitting a dragon screw leg whip.  Sapp gets up quickly though and slams Muta hard to the mat.  Elbow drop by Sapp and he tosses Muta back into the corner.  Clothesline by Sapp, followed by shoulder tackles in the corner.  Sapp hits a few clubbing blows in the corner and chokes Muta with his foot.  The referee tries to push Sapp back, and while he does, Muta comes off the referee's back with a Shining Wizard.  Muta clotheslines Sapp over the top rope, exits the ring himself, and throws Sapp into the guardrail.  Back in the ring, Muta picks Sapp up and snapmares him down.  A quick elbow drop by Muta follows and he goes for the cross armbreaker.  Sapp slams Muta down to get out of it however and shoulder blocks Muta out of the ring.  Big Bob Sapp then comes flying out of the ring with a pescado, flooring Muta.  Muta slowly makes his way back into the ring, but Sapp shoulderblocks him down.  Another shoulderblock by Sapp, he goes for the powerbomb, but Muta spits green mist in his eyes.  Shining Wizard by Muta, Sapp gets up quickly, so Muta gives him another one.  Cover, but Sapp kicks out at one.  A scoop slam by Muta follows and he nails the moonsault.  Cover, but Sapp manages to kick out at two.  Muta goes for another Shining Wizard, but this time Sapp catches him and throws him to the mat.  Dropkick by Sapp, he then climbs up to the top turnbuckle and hits a flying headbutt.  Cover, and he gets the three count victory.  Your winner:  Bob Sapp

Post match:  Muta leaves first, and uses his magic powers to blow up the ring and make a curtain fall over it, Coving Sapp up inside the ring behind the curtain.  We then get a recap of the winners of the card, and that is all she wrote.

Match Thoughts:  First of all, allow me to say that Muta's aura and image is second to none, and just him being in a match automatically makes it seem better.  I love Mutoh's new Muta mask, and since he doesn't wrestle as Muta often it is always a special occasion to see him wrestle.  That being said, I can't say I enjoyed Sapp take two Shining Wizards and a moonsault, only to win with a diving headbutt.  I know they were trying to get over how tough Sapp was (a few months later, Mutoh and Sapp would win the tag titles), but I didn't buy the method in which they did so.  Sapp is actually fine in shorter matches, since he doesn't blow up as he would have if the match had lasted more then ten minutes.  But seriously, shouldn't a main event on a major card go longer than six and a half minutes?  And if that is all Sapp can go, maybe this should have been the semi-main event.  Regardless, this was a strange way to end a strange card, and I still don't know what I think about the whole thing.  Score:  5.0


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